Champagne is generally associated with feelings of euphoric excess and the special occasions that prompt them -- New Year's Eve celebrations, weddings, birthdays, promotions. Even if you're in the mood to splurge, a large crowd or a tight budget can prompt the pursuit of cheap Champagne. From France to Spain, Italy, and California, there's enough excellent bubbly to go around for $10 or less. The challenge lies in knowing what you're buying. We considered online reviews and ratings from a variety of sources and consulted a wine expert to come up with our top picks.

If you think cheap white wine is only for grandma's spritzer, think again. There's a white wine -- costing no more than $10 to satisfy almost anyone's palate. Inexpensive white wines can complement a range of foods, brighten up a lazy summer afternoon, and make an excellent substitute for pre-dinner cocktails. White wines typically present fruity and/or floral flavors and aromas, sometimes offer a bit of spice and earthiness, and range in sugar content from bone dry to dessert-level sweet. We've made top picks based on tastings, ratings, reviews, and awards, on top of expert advice, and suspect wine drinkers will find at least one selection to suit both their sipping preferences and their budget.

Who needs a premium red wine when a thoroughly respectable bottle costs $10 or less? Frugal quaffers who know even a little bit about wine and aren't afraid to go with what they like will find many such bottles. There are hundreds of cheap red wines out there -- some barely worth the few dollars you'd pay but many worth drinking. With so many styles, grape varieties, producers, and labels to choose among, shopping can be a challenge. To guide wine drinkers through the thicket, we've made top picks based on tastings, ratings, reviews, awards, and expert advice. We've also selected a wide array of other inexpensive red wines fit to serve with a meal, bring to a party, or sip over the course of a quiet evening.

Mr. Coffee JWTX85 Review

The thermal pot on this 8-cup programmable unit would be useful for keeping coffee hot, if the coffee that came out was hot to begin with. Users also find both the lid and cleaning hard to manage.

A low-priced coffee maker with a thermal carafe that can keep coffee warm without scorching it on a heating plate is a real find. Unfortunately, most reviewers suggest that the coffee produced by the Mr. Coffee JWTX85 (starting at $38; available on Amazon) isn’t worth keeping around.

The Mr. Coffee JWTX85 is an 8-cup programmable coffee maker with a stainless steel thermal carafe intended to keep the brew at the same temperature for a few hours. Many Mr. Coffee JWTX85 reviews on the manufacturer’s site and at Walmart complain about cold coffee, however, saying the carafe does not work as intended.

Where to buy

To be fair, there are some reviewers, such as this one on Amazon, who consider the coffee flavorful, rich, and warm enough. There are also some people who say they don’t like very hot coffee. Several others insist that if you carefully follow the instructions, and fill the carafe with hot water to warm it prior to brewing, the coffee will be hot. Of course, filling the carafe with hot water first is not an option if you’re programming it the night before the coffee gets made. For the most part, disappointment with the carafe -- which includes frustration associated with opening, closing, and cleaning it -- and the tepid coffee are reviewers' primary reasons for panning the machine.

There are other features on the Mr. Coffee JWTX85 that do improve the coffee experience, reviewers say. A brew-strength selector pumps up the volume for a stronger cup of coffee, and Grab-A-Cup Auto Pause lets users sneak in for that immediate mug when necessary. The machine automatically shuts off after two hours as a boon to the forgetful. It also has a cleaning cycle.

All in all, there are good pots with thermal carafes to be had out there, but not for this price, and not this model.

Elizabeth Sheer

Elizabeth Sheer is a Brooklyn-based writer and researcher. In addition to researching and writing about household appliances and other consumer items, Elizabeth draws on her history of preparing cooking-related articles to conduct taste tests on all things delicious.